There's no secret to why the Dolphins' Lousaka Polite excels at the dirty job of fullback, a hard position that wide-open offenses have stripped of any glitz.

• He has been doing it since he was 9.

• He likes paying the bills.

Let's take that last part first. Polite's salary this season is $900,000. He said -- and teammates confirm -- that he still lives like he's out of a job, which he has been at various times during the past five years and was for the 46 days before the Dolphins signed him on Oct. 16, 2008. He readily plays like he might be out of a job the next morning, despite the Dolphins signing him to an extension that runs through the 2011 season.

``Especially if you've ever been released or on the outside looking in for a job,'' Polite said, ``you find out fast, you better find out what they need and find out how to do it and do it to the best of your ability. I don't wish being cut on anybody. It's a learning experience. I don't want to do that anymore.''

So Polite doesn't care if he rarely carries the ball outside of third-and-1. He doesn't care if the only ``touches'' coaches count with him aren't runs and receptions, but violent touching: run blocking, blitz pickups and special teams tackling.

``Lou is the kind of person, no matter what you ask him to do, he goes out and does it to the best of his abilities,'' said Dolphins running back Ronnie Brown, a beneficiary of many a Polite block. ``You never have a problem out of him.''

Offensive coordinator Dan Henning's affinity for running back Patrick Cobbs, out for the season because of a torn knee ligament, prompted Dolphins football czar Bill Parcells to declare that Cobbs was Henning's ``pet cat.''

``If we don't have Pat Cobbs anymore, if my pet cat is in the shop, then Lou is my pet cat,'' Henning said. ``He cleans up more things from his position in the backfield than you can ever imagine.

``He's an astute gentleman. He knows how to behave, he knows how to block, catch, he can run the ball. I don't know if there's anybody in the league who has been as successful on third down as he has for us in the last year and a half.''

Over that time, on third- or fourth-and-1, Polite has gotten that yard on 17 of 18 carries, including a league-leading 6 for 6 this season. Appropriate for the low-to-no glory life of being a fullback, none of those carries was from the 1-yard line.

They were carries that just moved the chains toward the end zone where someone else got to do the work for the highlights. Polite's last touchdown was in 2005 with Dallas.

``It's definitely a job full of want-to,'' Polite said. ``You've got to want to do it. I've been playing fullback since I was 9 years old, Pop Warner and everything, so I don't have a problem with it.

``I feel like it's necessary. I know a lot of teams don't use it as much, but I still feel it's a core position. I try to prove it every time I get a chance to play.''

Brown said of Polite's job: ``I think it's underappreciated. It's kind of like a lineman. You don't see how big an impact they have, but when you're behind guys like that, you really appreciate what they do. So when you get a chance to praise those guys it's always good [for them] to know you do appreciate them.''

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